Chapter 34

December Twenty-fourth 8:45 a.m.

His chin propped up on his hands, Mark sat at a table in the evidence room and stared at the heavily engraved sword that they had recovered from Iltana's car. When he had been a kid, fighting imaginary dragons with a twenty sided dice, he had dreamed of having a magic weapon, which, now that he thought about it, was probably one of the main reasons that he hadn't lost his virginity until he was nineteen. Now that dream had come true, and it was proving to be a major pain in the ass.

The sword and the car were looking like yet another dead end. No one who worked in the area in which the car had been found had seen the pair or the man who had taken them. Prints lifted from the car were still being run, but most belonged to the girl. Unless 'Sam's' prints were in the database - and most people's weren't - the prints would be yet another piece of useless evidence added to the file.

He ran his thumb along the blade that seemed to hold an edge far better than bronze should. Bright beads of blood rose from the laceration it left behind. With a muttered curse that would have earned him a stern look had Jenny been present, he popped the injured digit into his mouth. He should have known better: he had seen what the weapon had done to Mia's leg.

His eyes widened in sudden epiphany as he realized a possible reason for the lack of disappearances in Pittsburgh compared to the huge number everywhere else. With his uninjured hand he fumbled through the loose papers and folders that cluttered the table until he found his cell phone. He dialed the number for forensics from memory. He recognized the voice of the man who answered.

"Hi, Larry, this is Mark. Do you remember those two rookies that vanished just about a month ago?"

"Hey, Mark. Yeah, the names escape me at the moment, but I remember them. What about them?"

"Were forensic investigations ever conducted on their homes?"

"Nope. One guy had a cluttered basement, but other than that, neither place showed any sign of a struggle. None of the neighbors saw or heard anything odd. They were simply gone. Without any sign of foul play, there was no reason to go through the expense of a full forensics investigation."

"Could you get some people to do them now?"

"If the places are still vacant, I suppose so. We'll need a warrant, though."

"I'll take care of that."

"Anything special we should be looking for?"

"Cuts in the walls, floor or ceiling. I'll send you a folder that has all the dimensions and other particulars of the weapon I think might have been used."